THANE: City commuters hailing from the high density localities like Wagle Estate and Lokmanya Nagar, travelling from the far end of Ghodbundar Road and those travelling regularly to the neighbouring cities will breathe a sigh of relief once the intracity metro line is completed, as the ring route will pass right through their doorsteps.
The proposed 29km circuitous intracity metro project, implemented by the Maha Metro on behalf of the Thane Municipal Corporation, will start of from the New Thane metro station in old city area and then pass the high density pockets of Wagle Estate, go along the Glady Alvares Road, turn go on till Vijay Nagari and Waghbil before turning back and passing through Kolshet, Rabodi, Thane station before reaching New Thane station again.

“The city’s population is expected to grow to 27 lakhs by the year 2025, of which 5.76 lakh passengers will be using the metro services daily once it is fully operational. The main aim of this project is to connect the different distant and difficult to access pockets of the city with the city centre and the modes of transportation that will take commuters across to other cities,” said Dr Brijesh Dixit, MD, Maha Metro.

“We conducted a six month study where we analyzed the population density in each area as well as the preferred transportation choices of the commuters there, the space available, the common daily travel destinations and so on before coming up with the locations for the 20 elevated stations and the 2 underground ones,” added an official from the Maha Metro team.

In all, this intracity metro line is expected to not only help citizens travel to different ends of the city but also aid those traveling to the neighbouring cities through its inter modal system.

“This ring route intracity metro will align with the Mumbai-Kasarvadavli metro line in the shape of the Greek symbol phi. So in addition to connecting commuters with the bus transportation at Lokmanya Nagar bus depot, and the railway line at the underground Thane station metro line, this intercity circuitous metro line will also allow citizens to switch over to the metro trains traveling to Mumbai on the Mumbai – Kasarvadavli line. This will reduce the pressure on the railway traffic as well as the roadway traffic then,” Dr. Dixit said.

The project, which is expected to cost around Rs.10,500 crore will also be embedded with solar panels and thus be energy sufficient.

“The roofs of the metro stations have ample space and can fit about 10 lakh solar panels which will provide about 65 percent of the energy requirements of these metro services. We have implemented a similar project successfully in Nagpur and will replicate it in Thane as well,” Dr Dixit said.

The Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the proposed Thane Metro Rail Project has been submitted to Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) who will then submit it to state government. Once the DPR is cleared by all concerned authorities, it is expected to pave the way for the launching of the project, which will then ease traffic congestion and facilitate passenger movement to a great extent in this city. The project is likely to be ready by 2025.